‘Raise Your Voice’ Archives
Doo Wop And Cannon Falls
by Peter Molenaar The luckier members of my generation were again able to watch public television”'s annual review of the Doo Wop Pop Rock music emergence (late ”˜50s””early ”˜60s). As always, it was an awesome emotional head swoon. Moreover, let us self-reflect, the splendid performances of so many popular Black artists served to educate and humanize millions of white Americans Note: I was born August 26, 1950”¦ How is it that these tunes are lodged in my brain and subject to recall? Probably it is owing to the daily school bus rides into the town of Cannon Falls. The good bus driver had the radio on all those years. Yet the town remained white, with just a touch of Dakota blood mixed in. Any outside person of color was sure to incite such internal red flags as: Get a grip, be nice but do not touch. It was from elsewhere, moved by the music, that some white folks went South to confront the terror regime there. The news trickled in. We learned [...]
High Heat
By Peter Molenaar The weather we”'ve endured recently has produced the oft heard comment: “It”'s not the heat, it”'s the humidity”. Well, OK. Let”'s bear in mind, however, that temperature is a measurement of how energetically molecules are vibrating. Note: In the desert we feel comfortable even at relatively elevated temperatures. Why? Dry air is less dense, i.e. has fewer molecules vibrating against the skin and so manifests less “heat”. Conversely, humid air manifests more heat. So then, its not the humidity, it”'s the heat (more heat). Right? (more…)
What”'s in a Name?
By Peter Molenaar 13,000 years ago the great glacier, which had covered these parts for many thousands of years, began to recede. Giant ice boulders left among the drift created the holes which became our lakes. One such lake would come to be called Mde Maka Ska. The people migrated northward with the receding ice. Those who remained in this neighborhood began to alter the landscape with the repeated use of fire. Forest undergrowth was reduced. Pockets of prairie and oak savannah were expanded. Buffalo befriended the curious deer. Time passed”¦ In 1803, the United States purchased “ownership” of this area from France. In 1805, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike acquired from the Dakota the site which would become Fort Snelling. In 1817, the then Secretary of War, one John C. Calhoun, sent in an army to survey the surroundings. Having located Mde Maka Ska, the troops decided to call her “Lake Calhoun”. (more…)
